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Opened in 1925, Stateville was built to accommodate 1,506 inmates. Parts of the prison were designed according to the panopticon concept proposed by the British philosopher and prison reformer, Jeremy Bentham. Stateville's "F-House" cellhouse, commonly known as a "roundhouse", has a panopticon layout which features an armed tower in the center of an open area surrounded by several tiers of cells. F-House was the only remaining "roundhouse" still in use in the United States in the 1990s. It was closed in late 2016 but the structure will remain standing due to it's historical significance.[3] The prison was duplicated in Cuba in 1901, but has since been abandoned.[4][5]

In 2009 a 40-year-old man from Chicago, Richard Conner murdered a 37-year-old Will County man named Jameson Leezer, who had originated from Lisle and Bolingbrook. Both were inmates placed in the same solitary confinement cell together. The killing made the state of Illinois change its rules in housing two prisoners together during solitary confinement; the prison authorities now must take into account both inmates' histories of violence.[6]

The Stateville Correctional Center was one of three sites in which executions were carried out by electrocution in Illinois. Between 1928 and 1962, the electric chair was used 13 times at Stateville, including the state's first electrocutions on December 15, 1928 of three convicted murderers.[7]

When the method was changed to lethal injection, Stateville was the only site where executions were carried out until 1998 when death row was relocated to the Tamms Correctional Center in Tamms, Illinois.[citation needed]

In March 2011 Governor Pat Quinn signed into law legislation ending the death penalty in the state of Illinois.

Today the prison holds an average of over 3,500, at an annual cost of over $32,000 per prisoner.[8]

Stateville's 1,300 employees make it a Level 1 facility; the highest of eight security level designations. There is also a minimum security unit commonly referred to as the Stateville Farm, which is a Level 7 facility, located within the new Northern Reception Center, located just south of the main facility. The Northern Reception Center (NRC), accepts incoming prisoners from the county jails in the northern two-thirds of the state.

Stateville is located two miles (3 km) north of Joliet, Illinois (16830 IL Route 53 Crest Hill, IL 60403; (815) 727-3607), on a site of over 2,200 acres (8.9 km2), of which 64 acres (26 ha) are surrounded by a 33-foot (10 m) concrete perimeter with 10 wall towers. Stateville is often confused with the former Joliet Correctional Center, which closed in 2002. Located in the nearby city of Joliet, the former Joliet Prison is much older and smaller. It is located about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southeast of Stateville on the corner of Woodruff rd. and Collins St., across the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

Paul Modrowski - Convicted February 17, 1995 of first degree accountability to murder for supposedly lending a car to Robert Faraci, even though that co-defendant was acquitted by a separate jury a day prior. Paul also has his own prison blog titled on the inside in which he documents everything that has happened to him. Paul also has autism and believes that his autistic traits in court, which include lack of eye contact and lack of emotional expression can be mistaken for lack of remorse and proven guilt. He was born on November 30, 1974.

Clint Massey - Convicted June 5, 2016 of first degree murder in 2014 slaying of cab driver Javon Boyd and sentenced to 39 years. At the time, he was 17. Massey rapped under the stage name RondoNumbaNine.

Courtney Ealy - Convicted May 9, 2016 of first degree murder in 2014 slaying of cab driver Javon Boyd and sentenced to 38 years. At the time, he was 19. Ealy rapped under the stage name Cdai.

The prison-riot footage and scenes of a prison warden rushing down a hallway in a herd of reporters in the 1994 film Natural Born Killers were filmed in vacant buildings at Stateville while most of the prison was still in use housing inmates. Actual inmates played extras during the riot scene with rubber knives and guns. After three weeks of shooting the inmates caused an actual riot and the remainder of the film was filmed elsewhere. The roundhouse was definitely in the main scenes.